I think it's a safe bet that nobody would have the letter unless Crump wanted them to have it. Sybrina surely wouldn't have handed it over (assuming it was her) without Crump's approval. I can't imagine anyone in Trayvon's family doing anything like that without going through Crump first. So my question is: What does Crump gain from its release? If anything. If it was given to the state early on why would they bother sitting on it and not put it in discovery? On the surface it doesn't seem to harm their case. If it was given to them recently then again I ask: What does Crump get out of it? I also wonder who handed it over. I'd tend to think it would have been in Crump's possession. Isn't it something the family would have handed over to their lawyer as soon as they got it?

I don't know that it has any significance or makes any difference. It's just a point of curiosity for me.

From your inquiry, I took it you were seeking to attribute the meme to somebody, and wondered if the meme might be attributable to Gutman, rather than to Crump. Still a point of curiosity, but at least it had a purpose in assigning the lies to the right liars.

From your inquiry, I took it you were seeking to attribute the meme to somebody, and wondered if the meme might be attributable to Gutman, rather than to Crump.

Gutman definitely. He called her that the first time he referred to her, in the first sentence of his first article on the subject.

Quote

A phone call from slain black teenager Trayvon Martin to his girlfriend seconds before he was shot dead by a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain "blows ... out of the water" the shooter's self-defense claim and he should be arrested "right now," a lawyer for Martin's family said today.

Attorney Benjamin Crump spoke after ABC News reported exclusively the existence of a phone call between Martin and his girlfriend [snip]

"This young lady connects the dots," said Crump.

Gutman said 'his girlfriend' in an indirect quote attributed to Crump, but when he quoted Crump directly it was 'This young lady'.

For many people, 'Trayvon's girlfriend' has become their primary way of designating W-8. That is why I am curious about the history of the meme, and why the other expressions people have mentioned aren't so interesting to me.

Gutman says: "The 16-year-old girl, who is only being identified as DeeDee, recounted the final moments of her conversation with Martin before the line went dead." He may be misleading us, but the clear implication is that he got the name DeeDee from someone else.

Gutman says: "The 16-year-old girl, who is only being identified as DeeDee, recounted the final moments of her conversation with Martin before the line went dead." He may be misleading us, but the clear implication is that he got the name DeeDee from someone else.

I don't think that implication is clear. An alternate interpretation would be 'is only being identified [by me] as DeeDee'.

Has 'DeeDee' been used by anyone close to the action other than Gutman?

I don't think that implication is clear. An alternate interpretation would be 'is only being identified [by me] as DeeDee'.

I disagree. Saying "who is only being identified as DeeDee" clearly suggests to me that someone besides Gutman was calling her DeeDee. If he wanted to say he came up with the name, he should have said something like, "who I'll call DeeDee."

In any event, I've got to admit I'm perplexed. It's hard to believe W8 revealed her actual full name to Fulton but not to Crump. It's hard to see what sort of nickname would require such a long redaction. If the redacted area is a statement about not revealing her name, it's hard to see why it would be redacted.

De la Rionda asked Dee Dee if she and Trayvon were dating (2:26). Her response was an unintelligible grunt, but de la Rionda seems to have taken it as a negative.

Given BDLR's additional "I don't mean to get personal, but, I'm not gonna ask you any more, other than that," I think he took her going non-verbal at that point as a sign of embarrassment, not as a denial that they were involved romantically.

Hence the brief gentle fishing expedition that got her to admit to "gettin' there."

If he took it as a negative, he could've asked her to state clearly that they were not romantically involved in any way, and pressed further about the nature of their relationship.

(And yes, I know we're talking about BDLR here, but he did press her for a straight answer on a couple of other points.)

Given BDLR's additional "I don't mean to get personal, but, I'm not gonna ask you any more, other than that," I think he took her going non-verbal at that point as a sign of embarrassment, not as a denial that they were involved romantically.